Incidents of reality: sources of ontological stress and concern

This study provided initial data on the hierarchical order among various existential-ontological stresses; compared these stresses to Spielberger Trait vs State anxiety; and, examined these stresses with respect to Eysenck's extraversion and neuroticism dimensions as well as Eysenck's social favorability response bias. Death in the immediate family emerged as the highest ranked items on the 69 open-ended item scale. Data on 139 males, 244 females, plus 4 individuals without recorded gender (median age approx. 29.5 years) indicated little overlap as well as little difference between State and Trait anxiety measures. Approximately one-eighth of the correlations between the Incidents of Reality items and both the Eysenck and Spielberger scales were statistically significant though all were of slight magnitude. Data were further compared for correspondence to the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale. For the nine items judged as common, the Spearman rank-order correlation (rho = 0.867) indicated support for the cross-reliability of the two scales. Overall, stress to ontological issues is both positive and negative in direction. A number of points based on these findings are discussed with reference to various conceptions in ontology.